Guild Wars 2

You got a little happy with the skill rotation tool, huh…

Amazing build.

Mist Form is incredibly strong and a well designed skill, I feel. It’s very strong to those who need and want it, and it provides a proportionate drawback (high CD, no access to skills, can’t be stopped once used), and these drawbacks are harsh enough that not everyone will run it, yet the skill itself is strong enough that many players still use it. It’s not an “auto-include” and it’s not a “never-include”. It’s a choice out of many.

It’s because dedicated-traited Staff Mesmer is generally one of the least played Mesmer archetypes in the game.

I’m quite aware of the build you’re talking about. I played it for a little bit back in the day.

It’s a shame, because I really do feel it’s an archetype that isn’t explored nearly enough. It looks insane in WvW small to mid skirmishes. A Mesmer dedicated to spitting out boons, little heals, and Chaos Storm sounds like a winner in my small roaming zerg.

The thing about Elementalists and Guardians, I suppose, is that their popular specs:
-Ele D/X Bunker (Mostly PvP, some PvE)
-Ele Scepter Fresh Air Burst (PvP)
-Ele Glass Lightning Hammer (PvE)
-Guardian AH Bunker (PvP and PvE)
-Guardian Cleric-Mid Bunker (PvP)
-Guardian Greatsword/Sword DPS (Mostly PvE, some PvP)

…all have to do with buffing allies with boons and heals.

By contrast, consider the popular Mesmer specs:
-Mesmer Shatter (Mostly PvP, some PvE)
-Mesmer Phantasms (PvP and PvE)
-Mesmer Reflects (PvE)
-Mesmer Condition (PvP)

Do not have to do with constantly providing your team with boons, heals, and buffs. Instead, you use your (incredibly overpowered) utility and weapon abilities, such as Focus Pull, Portal, Time Warp, Signet of Inspiration, Feedback, and Null Field while providing burst DPS.

Guardian hands down for FOTM and ARAH.

For WvW, it actually depends on what you want to do, and both Ele and Guard are good there.

With regard to PvE:

Elementalist DPS is actually really high with Lightning Hammer. And its DPS with a more offensive-oritented spec is not terrible.

Given that…. look, I really would suggest Guardian, then Mesmer first. Guardian in particular is just so strong, and it is a very magic-based class, flavor-wise. Mesmer is also a very magical character with tons of utility and some great burst DPS in PvP formats.

Elementalist is… it’s a very hard class to play. And it requires a ton of work to be good, and it’s true, if you can manage to play something like the LH spec, you will indeed do insane DPS. But if you’re hoping to play a ranged caster who sits in the back and casts fireball, you will do absolutely miserable DPS.

With regard to WvW:

Staff Elementalist excels in this format and is very strong, with huge AoEs and great supportive skills that get very strong in zerg fights. If you really have your heart set on playing a casty character doing casty stuff while being an Elementalist, stick to WvW zerging.

If you’re more of a PvE player, try a Guardian or Mesmer first, and roll Ele as an alt. I love Ele, but it’s just very hard for the effort you put into it, and what you get out in return.

Scepter = High burst, low sustained damage
Dagger = Moderate burst, moderate sustained damage
Lightning Hammer = High sustained damage
Fiery Greatsword + Wall = Highest damage in the game
Staff = Best left as a WvW zerg weapon with its large AoEs

If PvE is your focus and you want a spellcaster, roll a Guardian. Roll Ele as an alt.

Ele Earth Shield new control meta!

I find Lightning Hammer to be a miserable thing to use and only use it because it’s what maximizes DPS in dungeons. I would not suggest it for the open world.

I have a guide in my sig that gives several Ele builds, however. Try one of those, a few use LH.

Dude, I need your IGN

Anyway, thanks!

Go for the +5 AR for 75 Relics.

Razzy.2741:

Hello there Gnat,

I’ve been playing support Guardian build ever since release, tunning it slighty over the months, until the point I felt like it works everywhere. People say you can’t be dedicated healer in dungeons, but it’s not true. You can, and you can do it very well.

Of course those who say that full berserk sets work even better might be correct, but not every group is full of pro players who know all the mechanics in the game, and know what to dodge. And in these groups, a healing Guardian can be very handy.

I usually run with 4 berserk warriors though, so they make up for all the damage I’m lacking, while I maintain their health, boons and Might on desirable level, as well as can add 10s of Quickness on bosses. Most of the time warriors don’t even need to dodge anything, cos they get stability, aegis, protection and regen, as well as direct heals at right moment.

Here is link to the build I run:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNApeWlUgiCnFyKEg4ERWBRi9AjZsjXPS4DZIA-jwCBoNBCvBkYAgaAi+AMNqIas1uht6KalXBRNjIqWZDDA-e

0 0 30 30 10,
50% boon duration without cons,
shouts removing conditions,
up to 1800 healing power with Mace and Sigil of life,
Endless energy regen with the sigils of Energy+Stamina and vigor (fury from warriors helps with vigor)

Depending on encounter, one or two shouts are switched with consecrations like Hallowed Ground, Wall of Reflection, Sanctuary and in some particular dungeons/fractals Spirit Shield.

I played a lot in GW1 as Imbagon, and that’s exactly what I wanted to achieve in GW2. I think I succeeded, even though most players want to leave when they see a guardian with staff and mace, after one run with me they end up asking about my build. So I don’t think it’s that bad really, it’s just against the belief of “healing power scales bad” and “you can’t heal lol” and “play berserk, kk?”.

I’m trying to prepare extensive guide with videos on the gameplay with this build, so far got only two videos, TAkittenpath and CoE p2. You can check them here:

CoE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwGTvLbPHIQ

TA:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5drmLuDu9Gs

It’s really weird for me when I see berserk guardians. If I want to do it berserk way, I play my warrior. If I want to play guardian, I like to dedicate myself to be best supporter you can get, even though my damage is crap.

I’m really confused… I didn’t see what you contributed. You didn’t really do any damage, and I didn’t see a bunch of green healing numbers either.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

You’re talking about excluding at least 4 of the 8 professions in the entire game. How is this their fault? And using ranged attacks is lazy by default?

sigh

There are a few things I notice from the way you’re talking about this, but I’m going to try and get to the heart of the problem here.

First off, as others have said, using Fear to spread out enemies is just about the worst thing you can do when trying to handle groups of mobs. Mesmers are valuable not because of their (miserable) DPS, but because of their ability to pull mobs together with Focus 4. Similarly, Guardian GS 5, while somewhat unreliable at times, is still very helpful in grouping mobs together. In the Tier 2 side of things, I’ve even seen Eles try to use Conjure Earth Shield 4 or Rangers use Offhand Axe 4 to group mobs together (both suck, but they’re trying :P ). The truth is, part of the reason many people dread grouping with Necros in particular is for this exact reason – they will try and Fear mobs away when there are “too many” of them in one place. Not only is this counterproductive, but it also demonstrates a fundamental lack of knowledge about the best way to deal with such groups of mobs – ball them together in a corner and AoE them down. Don’t spread them out!

Anyway, I notice you’re using a lot of sort of moral arguments to try and talk about game balance. “How is this their fault? And using ranged attacks is lazy by default?” I don’t think you understand what it is serious gamers are trying to achieve. No, I do not think, as a moral issue, that it is fair or just that ranged DPS is not properly rewarded in GW2 PvE like it is in other games, but that says nothing about whether it is in objectively useful thing to do. The fact of the matter is that the game developers balanced classes in such a way that Ranged DPS is inferior to Melee DPS in terms of sheer numerical output. These players may want to play Ranged DPS (I like to play Ranged DPS in games, for sure), but the fact is that, like it or not, the developers have sought to severely limit Ranged Damage output in PvE, probably to keep the numbers the same for PvP, where Ranged DPS is still too strong.

The fact is, no, this game is not balanced. As is typical with complex games, it is highly imbalanced. The game is rife with bad specs and bad choices that are not viable in any of the three formats (PvE, WvW, PvP), and compounding on this problem, what is viable in one format may not be very useful in another. And yes, the thing is, the “good” PvE specs for classes like Necromancer, Ranger, and Elementalist often involve them doing things that the players who made these classes didn’t envision (playing pure Melee Dagger for Necro, playing Sword or Greatsword on Ranger, playing a narrow Lightning Hammer spec on Elementalist). And yes, this sucks, I’ll admit. But the fact is, especially in Fractals where things get progressively harder and more ridiculous, having good builds becomes more and more essential. This isn’t a question of what’s moral or fair, it’s a matter of what actually works, after the community has worked so hard to figure out what does and doesn’t work. And the thing is, people who play Warriors and Guardians more often play their class’ optimal specs because those specs are in line with what those classes are normally envisioned to do (full glassy Warrior, DPS-support Guardian).

Given that, I will say that I actually agree with the very original premise of this thread, which is that it’s stupid people are discriminating against people based on class, and only based on class. I have seen a huge amount of really really bad Warriors and Guardians. In fact I’ve seen so many Warriors and Guardians in PTV gear using Shout Heals or Knights gear doing no damage and ranging things that should be meleed that I am no longer awed or partial to people who bring Warriors or Guardians. Basically, I’ve seen so many bad players that I’m totally jaded to class by now. If the first thing I see from a Ranger is a Warhorn and Sword or a Greatsword, or I see a Necro fighting it up with me in Melee with a Dagger, then I am always quite pleased and that run almost always ends up better because they’re doing their part.

Basically, there’s huge imbalances, it sucks, but every class can still succeed if you’re willing to put the effort in and to follow the proper meta strategies for success. What is not helpful is sticking to your own special little way of playing without giving a good reason, other than because you want to be special and play your way. That might work in open world, but in dungeons, you’re now using up other people’s time, not just your own, so you should be mindful of that whenever you play in instanced content with others, and try to play your very best.

Zelyhn.8069:

Ouch! You sound so bitter Neko!

Congrats on sticky

For Scepter I agree with you, in fact I never understood why anyone would use it by default in PvE.
For Focus however, I think this is the way to go until they decide to buff off-hand daggers (it is really lacking ATM). While wielding my focus the one thing I miss from the Dagger is the ability to AoE kb (for PvP), but it is possible to make up for that using the conjured earth shield (tricky!).

It seems the Ele community is elvolving, it is good to see that, after a long winter of bunker D/D supremacy!

Heh, thanks.

I think the reason Scepter is catching on is because of Fresh Air and Persisting Flames. And to be fair, in a speedclear group, you actually would rather have Scepter to do a full might rotation stack, then bring out Lightning Hammer. But I think that in general, it really still lacks sustained damage. I think the big thing is Arc Lightning. I know I’ve had to explain to many players that the damage is cumulative, not per tick. That, and Dragon’s Tooth and Phoenix actually do a rather significant amount of damage. It’s just that these are still abilities that have cooldowns and you can’t just sit there doing nothing while waiting for them to cool off. Hammer just fits this gap so perfectly I can’t, in good conscience, recommend using Scepter without using Hammer.

ilr.9675:

That’s fine too…

But hey a Guardian can also play at mid-range if they’re full boon Duration spec’d Buff bots. …maybe depends on the dungeon… but saying that a downed guardian is always some Martyr for maximinzing the group’s DPS is just malarky. If he was as “Elite” as his first comments implied, he wouldn’t have been downed at all. My Guardian has 900 healing and less than 15K hp but rarely gets downed. It’s a class that’s literally invulnerable to everything if you can avoid Panicking and change utils between every fight. … so no, the guy in the Screenshot doesn’t get a free pass just b/c he’s expected to be in Melee.

Do not ignore my response. I am actually really offended that you accused me of saying Warriors and Guardians are the only Melee classes in the game, when my post literally said the opposite.

The Mexican Cookie.3690:

ilr.9675:

Champ Aboms (massive damage 180 degree instant Cleave as an auto-attack … no telegraph… wtf anet?)

Do you play with goggles on or something?

Strangely, I just read this. The Champion Abominations… have some of the easiest telegraphs in the game. And the best way to kill them is to stand behind them so their cleave attack doesn’t hit you.

ilr.9675:

Warzaw.2708:

As a ranger, I’m offended by his statement to not play with us.

No, but seriously.

I’m more offended by Neko’s statement above yours implying that Guardian/War is the only melee classes. Bull kitten, my Ranger spends more time in Melee (than my Guardian) against more dangerous bosses every day. It’s the only way to get decent DPS out of it.

The only thing in the game I won’t melee is Champ Aboms (massive damage 180 degree instant Cleave as an auto-attack … no telegraph… wtf anet?) and Lyssa’s Gorrilla

Wut. I mentioned Spotter Ranger, alluding to Brazil and Guang’s Ranger builds. The ones that use Sword/Warhorn. I have been advocating Melee Ranger to my friends for the longest time now. In fact, I even mention in my list of builds various alternate melee options other than Warrior and Guardian, such as Backstab Thief and Dagger Necro. There are many people in the GW2 community that you can accuse of advocating only Warrior and Guardian, but my post was literally about how, even though these two are arguably optimal, that there are alternate melee options available that will still function decently.

You should leave your guild, I think.

However, I will say that if you want to speedclear dungeons, having a Warrior is a good thing. If you wanna do FOTM seriously, you should roll a Guardian. But if you just sometimes do dungeons and not very often at that, then just having your Ele is fine.

For what it’s worth, Pure Glass LH Ele is good for speedclears, but is hard to pull off. There are some Ele builds I put out there, though, for PUGing and for if you’re still getting used to a piece of content.

In a two Guardian three Warrior group, you can replace one of the Warriors with an alternate DPS class (DPS Guardian, LH Elementalist, Backstab Thief, Dagger Necro, Spotter Ranger, Grenadier Engineer) or a Mesmer for utility. Hell, you could replace two Warriors with two different DPS characters. Warriors are probably “the best” and some are considered to be worse than others, but if you really want to push a class to its limits while still being close to optimal, options exist for all the classes. The thing is, however, that after getting to high level FOTM (46+) and running lots of dungeons every day, you begin to realize that it’s just better to take some classes than others.

Personally I hope that other classes get things that Guardians have – group stability, projectile reflects, AoE pulls, area CC that isn’t Fear (since Fear pushes mobs away and thus works against trying to melee DPS cleave mobs down), once they start adding new skills, since right now, it’ true, high level FOTM basically mandates multiple Guardians to have a smooth run. And yes, the truth is Warriors are probably the only class you want in FOTM if you want smooth, quick runs. But it is possible for other classes to work within the system and still be helpful. But regardless of all of these things, playing a condition damage ranged character is NOT one of the ways to help contribute optimally. Especially one that tries to use Fear to control mobs when the optimal way to deal with groups is to pull them together in a ball, not to spread them out.

I think you should try to get yourself to FOTM 40+ and try to observe the things that contribute to a smooth run. You should also compare your own performace to the performance and kill times of others on youtube, and see what you could improve. Because right now, I can tell you that you have some well-intentioned but ill-informed opinions on how to run dungeons effectively. It’s not your fault. ANet put all of these interesting diverse ability sets on stuf like Necro Staff or Ele Staff, but in fact most of their abilities are better served in WvW or PvP. The issue is that GW2 implements a lot of archetypical game concepts from other RPGs, but implements them in such a way into such a system that they don’t work as well as they would in other games. A Ranged CCer who uses Damage over time effects in large AoEs is a staple of many games (I always loved to play this type of character), and it’s still very good in GW2 WvW. It’s just sorta bad for PvE Dungeons and Fractals as the game is set up.

Basically, look at Obal’s videos and Strife’s videos on youtube, and you will see what it means to do dungeons efficiently and effectively. When I do a dungeon, I try to emulate those tactics with my guild because I know that these tactics will not only make the dungeon run go faster, but will make it smoother and more enjoyable as well. And the truth is, non-FOTM dungeons can be done with something like Necro, Engie, Ranger, Thief, and Ele, and as long as you properly utilize projectile blocks, LoS, and Melee Stacking and Melee DPS, you should be able to get good fast dungeon runs.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Neko.9021:

Let me get this straight. Since this is a level 20 fractal, the community should tolerate suboptimal builds, because it’s easy, and thus I can waste other’s time by not playing full DPS?

Please tell me why the community should dictate to other players what the optimal build is that they should be running? That seems entirely against the spirit of the game, and against the joy of playing with random people.

Also, since this isn’t a speed run, no one’s time is being wasted. When ever you team up with random people for Fractals, you can get bad team members who die all the time, regardless of their class or build. But you can also get good players regardless of their class or build, who don’t die at all.

And who decided all of a sudden that everyone must be playing a full DPS build?

I think people get the wrong idea of what it means to speedrun. Sometimes people want to do a dungeon but not spend 2 hours on it.

If I go into a group and decide to run around and not fight anything, just letting my team mates do all the work while I /sleep in the background, would this simply be acceptable variance in playstyle, or would it perhaps be highly inconsiderate of the people who all decided to sit down and play with me?

Playing DPS, to the very best of your ability (wearing as much Berserker as you can and taking as offensive traits as you can personally handle), is not a sign of elitism or snobbery of someone that ones a speedclear run only. It’s a sign that one values not only their own time, but the time of those around them, as they try to help complete the content in an as efficient manner as possible.

What I see in this is a sense of entitlement. A sense that because I have the time to just play around in a dungeon and use whatever build I want, others should wholeheartedly accept me, because obviously everyone has a luxuriously large amount of time to spend doing one instance, just like I do. And besides, the melee character has a Warrior to help him too. Look at that! They can both hold aggro together, and I’ll offer midrange support as I make a few dagger stabs (see, I can be melee too!) and then run off in deathshroud back to midrange (which still says “range” in the name). It couldn’t possibly be that some people in this party dichotomy are benefiting more by the sum total of work than others. Hmm.

Anyway, that’s my opinion of dungeons and content. As a Dagger/X or Hammer/X Ele player who has Meleed in full Berserker gear while the Guardian sits back with Scepter and the Warrior with Rifle, I feel great sympathy for my fellow frontliners, and I greatly dislike those who seek to mock them when they fall onto the floor for their valiant efforts because others were too busy offering “Ranged support”.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Wukunlin.8461:

I can’t agree with that. Everything becomes giant health sponges at higher lvls dps matters ALOT. Trash mobs also start to hit like a truck so a messed up LoS can easily cause a wipe.

I agree with you that when you are running Fractal levels between 30 or 40, that it becomes a lot less forgiving.

But this is Fractals level 20. It shouldn’t matter at such lower levels.

Let me get this straight. Since this is a level 20 fractal, the community should tolerate suboptimal builds, because it’s easy, and thus I can waste other’s time by not playing full DPS?

You know, I’m starting to see why, ever since I got 45 AR on my Ele and Guard, and started PUGing FOTM 48, I’ve had generally much better experiences and speedier runs than trying to PUG something like 10, 18, 20, 26, 30, or 38.

@OP

It doesn’t matter what I or you say. The goers at this forum are convinced that Ele is the worst class in the game and that they’re slower than everyone.

I’ll just say go look for daphoenix’s guide and forget trying to get any useful information out of this thread. People are going to just complain and tell you that things are terrible and awful and blah blah blah.

As much as I dislike this sort of attitude myself, I’m getting tired of people pointing to downed Guardians and Warriors and saying how much they suck, when in fact it’s usually these classes that are up at front meleeing things that are the real heroes in dungeons.

I notice your character is using staff, which is understandable against Mossman since he’s such a frustrating boss to melee (so I’d give a pass there), but if you were staying at range the whole time for every fractal while your Guardian was up there in melee, well…

Basically, one’s ability to stand at range and cast spells while others run up in the front and melee, holding aggro and dealing more damage, isn’t really indicative of the ranged player’s skill. It shows their ability to be carried by others willing to fight head to head, melee, with mobs.

Atlas.4509:

Hey Neko, amazing guide!

I wonder if I could get your thoughts on this S/F build: http://www.intothemists.com/calc/?build=-m;4R0-U0-5VL-Z0;9;4JT-9956-58B;15;04;05J;9;1i-kocF;5L-Q0V1_YeZk437WAV1a;5s-8ZF18Z;9;9;9-kkkkkk;9;0V8k3E

It is a build that WoodenPotatoes made, and it appeals to me because I’m currently bored with D/D (just got to 60 on my Ele) and was looking for a change. I’m also not crazy about the LH because my main is a hammer guardian and I was hoping for something different with my Ele.

Anyway, he claims that the combination of Fresh Air with Electric Discharge helps to offset the Scepter’s lack of sustained dps. Do you think that to be the case? If not, is there a viable way to use S/F in a dungeon without having to use LH?

Here is the video that WP used to explain his build: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq2DnGj3icI&feature=c4-overview&list=UUYUY9_i44IDNOs_Ja815mlA

It amazes me people are finally starting to use Focus, especially with Scepter because Offhand Dagger has been such a sacred cow for the Ele community for the longest time. It’s true. Swirling Winds alone makes Focus a better weapon for dungeons.

Given that, no, I don’t think that anything I saw in that video was really enough to convince me that Scepter with no Hammer is really viable. Scepter’s spike damage is as insane as ever, but even with Fresh Air and Lightning Strike procs, you’re still going to be doing really low damage once you’ve used up your burst. Lightning Hammer would work perfectly in that build, however, by just swapping a Fire Trait to Conjurer and replacing a utility with Lightning Hammer. Trust me, I’ve played around with this sort of build a lot, and once you combine it with Hammer, you’ll see that Lightning Hammer is just too good of an option to not use, plus Scepter’s auto attacks are as low as ever.

I will, however, change my guide to talk about adding Focus to Scepter. I used to think it was too radical an idea that people wouldn’t take it seriously (though I personally always use Focus with Scepter). But I guess people are starting to realize that, in our broken dungeon system, projectile blocks are king.

snaplemouton.1294:

Neko.9021:

Aether McLoud.1975:

snaplemouton.1294:

Neko.9021:

It seems really bland because Eles are the most spoiled class when it comes to condition removal.

That’s why I’m not gonna be using it.
Especially since speccing into cantrip often means you are going to get regen condition removal.
I’d sure gladly take cleansing fire on any of my other character, (Aside from my mesmer.) but it’s on my elementalist so I’m judging from my elementalist point of view.

Regen only removes a condition every 5 seconds which can mean death in pvp if you don’t use an active condition removal skill on top of it.

Yup. Cleansing Water was nerfed to have a 5 second internal cooldown. So you can’t, say, attune to water and then use a cantrip to remove several conditions in a row without waiting 5 seconds between them.

Yes I know, but I only meant you usually get Cleansing water when speccing into cantrips. With the plentora of other ways for elem to cleanse conditions, on top of it, cleansing fire feels pretty weak compared to a long stability, a blink and an invulnerability form.

And for the lightning hammer, when I last really played around with it, it was doing subpar damage because bundles didn’t take weapons stats in consideration, massively lowering the damage output of bundles. Did they change that?

Yes. Bundles now use your stats, and work with sigils and everything.

Lightning Hammer is still probably really bad in PvP formats, however. It’s more of a PvE thing.

Also, remember that Lightning Flash no longer removes stun either.

Aether McLoud.1975:

snaplemouton.1294:

Neko.9021:

It seems really bland because Eles are the most spoiled class when it comes to condition removal.

That’s why I’m not gonna be using it.
Especially since speccing into cantrip often means you are going to get regen condition removal.
I’d sure gladly take cleansing fire on any of my other character, (Aside from my mesmer.) but it’s on my elementalist so I’m judging from my elementalist point of view.

Regen only removes a condition every 5 seconds which can mean death in pvp if you don’t use an active condition removal skill on top of it.

Yup. Cleansing Water was nerfed to have a 5 second internal cooldown. So you can’t, say, attune to water and then use a cantrip to remove several conditions in a row without waiting 5 seconds between them.

It has always dealt a lot of damage. It deals Warrior levels of damage when combined with Piercing Shards (Water IV). The reason is that it:
-Is a melee weapon set
-Has a steep penalty (charges on a bundled weapon)

Thus it has a high damage ratio compared to our other stuff.

Aether McLoud.1975:

Neko.9021:

It was arguably far too powerful for what it did. Cleansing 3 conditions, applying burn, and breaking stun on a 45 second CD with the ability to, if traited, remove a fourth and grant regen and vigor was a bit much.

It’s still used by triple cantrip bunkers and quite powerful still. It was simply slowed down, for game balance.

Maybe it was too powerful, especially traited, but IMHO it is way too bland now. Remove 3 conditions and burn (which most of the time doesn’t apply when you need to use it) is really uninspiring. It should have something special now, like a blast finisher or a fire field or something.

It seems really bland because Eles are the most spoiled class when it comes to condition removal. In fact, many classes would absolutely love to have “Cleansing Fire” because instantly cleansing 3 conditions is actually incredibly powerful in PvP formats. It’s still a very strong skill and definitely worth considering when looking for defensive utilities.

Untrue. Look for Blinx’s guide to the sPvP Top Tier Bunker Ele. It’s used there, and it’s very strong. It was more a problem with folks like Daphoenix who could kite entire zergs for 10 minutes because they had 3 get out of jail free cards that they could, with good play, cycle through to keep themselves alive forever. Actually, in the sPvP metagame, Cleansing Fire is still very useful and very powerful due to the high concentration of constant condition pressure.

It was arguably far too powerful for what it did. Cleansing 3 conditions, applying burn, and breaking stun on a 45 second CD with the ability to, if traited, remove a fourth and grant regen and vigor was a bit much.

It’s still used by triple cantrip bunkers and quite powerful still. It was simply slowed down, for game balance.

Cleansing Fire was nerfed to slow down triple cantrip bunkers who could use cantrips to escape everything. It happened during the major trait overhaul patch at the beginning of July. Cleansing Fire was bugged, however, and still retained a quasi-stun breaker status (it would downgrade CC but not remove it). This was unintentional and now its stunbreaker abilities have been completely removed.

Zelyhn.8069:

Very nice guide

I cannot help but notice that the focus would be a very interesting choice for your off-hand rather than the dagger, for might and fury stacking purposes, as well as group utility. The cd on the blast finishers of the focus also synergyze better with the LH rotation.

Whenever I run Scepter, I actually personally always run Focus. When I give advice and write my guides, however, I usually say to use Dagger. The main problem is that even though, in my opinion, Focus is probably the better choice, it’s really hard to use with Scepter. Flamewall is an abomination of a skill and if you screw up your might stacking rotation you’ve basically screwed up the only good reason to bring an Ele over another Warrior or Guardian in a group.

Given that, yeah, I actually think Focus is the better choice. It actually works better for your rotation. Dragon’s Tooth->Flamewall->Phoenix->Earth Attunement lets you use both Magnetic Wave and Obsidian Flesh for a blast finisher and 4 seconds of Invuln. The Invuln is super nice because it gives you this time to set up your Lightning Hammer without getting interrupted. Ideally, you swap to Water Attunement, drop Comet for another Blast Finisher in the Fire Field, then conjure your Lightning Hammer, all while protected by Obsidian Flesh. In fact, if you think about it, it’s actually better for Might Stacking, since Churning Earth leaves you incredibly vulnerable as you channel, while Dragon’s Tooth→Flamewall→Phoenix→Earth Attunement→Obsidian Flesh→Magnetic Wave→Water Attunement→Comet→Lightning Hammer is a much safer rotation than Dragon’s Tooth→Ring of Fire→Phoenix→Earth Attunement→Earthquake→Churning Earth→Water Attunement→Lightning Hammer, because Obsidian Flesh keeps you safe and you don’t need to root yourself with Churning Earth.

But I still wouldn’t suggest it, generally. Mainly because it all relies on landing everything in Flamewall and it’s just much easier to land things in the quick and easy Ring of Fire on Offhand Dagger. But I still like to keep my Focus instead of Dagger when paired with Scepter.

Delta.8107:

Hi, thanks for wonderful guide and mentions about other elementalists to learn more.

I just entered 40+ fractals and I’m having problem with beign almost one shot in my berserker gear. Few parts from my PVT gear did the trick, but I’m at start with looking for how many HP do I need, or which armor combination should I use from now on.

At level 40+ FOTM, when PUGing, I switch back to a more defensive build (good ones are Auramancer and Fresh Air DPS). A more Lightning-Hammer-centric build becomes a bit more trouble than it’s worth at that level of difficulty, with a PUG.

Don’t use LH for exploration, it’ll be miserable. Just do with 0/30/0/10/30 and ditch the hammer for general world exploration.

0/30/0/10/30 can work with LH fine.

The build I have is meant to be used in that fashion. You do a bunch of Scepter-Dagger Might Stacking, then bash with the hammer until it’s used up, then go back to Might Stacking.

Valynaard.8475:

Thanks for the great guide, OP.

One question regarding your “Hybrid Dagger-Hammer (20/0/0/20/30)” build: would you consider changing scholar runes to a set of “Superior Runes of Divinity”?

It’s slightly more survivability by giving up some DPS – but does it worth to go this way?

Thanks in advance

Naw. That’s a lot of money spent for actually not that much gained. I’m a strong believer in max DPS from runes, because rune slots or upgrade slots can rather significantly increase your DPS.

I have one set of gear for WvW and one for PvE. That would be my honest suggestion to you.

For WvW, it depends on what you want to do, and what your build is. For instance, many Eles like Knights Armor with Berserker Trinkets in WvW, I find. I like to go full Soldiers gear and roam with a high DPS character by my side.

In PvE you should go full Berserker gear. The system is balanced around Berserker gear and so you’re better off killing mobs before they kill you.

sonicwylde.2906:

I am trying out one of the S/D neko builds you have, but I was somewhat interested in a signet build that uses the S/D … could I adapt the build to be more signet friendly? (not a huge fan of the conjured weapons, mainly because I cant use them to their fullest)

Unfortunately, other than Signet of Fire and Signet of Restoration, Signets are not strong enough to have a build centered around them at the moment that I would feel comfortable including in a guide, that would fulfill the base minimum Utility or DPS to a dungeon team.

I’m not a fan of conjures myself (other than Fiery GS). I think they’re poorly implemented. However, the truth is Lightning Hammer’s sustained DPS combos really well with Scepter’s burst. That’s why I always pair them together for dungeon builds.

For sure, look at the D/D Classic Auramancer build in my guide. It’s the best way to get started with the class.

willish.1859:

Neko,

Can you comment on these builds?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEEQJArYhEmOblRAhjDA0DpEecwAFIZYxEA-jwxAEEwkXR0YLuFRjVbjpchUvA6XlaA-e

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEEQJArYlw16MWZQABOyAA9QKSGW0Q5xM5YDA-jwxAEEwkXR0YLuFRjVbjpchUvA6XlaA-e

The idea is to provide 10 or so vulnerability stacks along with some might while retaining good dps. With Air 25, I have over 50% crit.

The rotation would be

(start in Air) -> RTL -> Lightning Strike -> Flash
(fire) -> Tooth -> RoF -> Fire Grab -> Phoenix -> Arcane Blast
(earth while rolling for EA proc) -> Earthquake -> Churning Earth
(water) Shatter Stone (vulnerability) -> Heals + throw down hammer -- stay in water to take advantage of regen and piercing shards with the hammer
(repeat when hammer is done)

The first build is obviously going to do more DPS and stack might + give fury. The first build does require some channeled spells to regen endurance though (air 1 or the heal). The second build has a lot more utility thanks to evasive arcana and elemental attunement.

Let me know if you think these are viable against the other builds.

They both look pretty good. Basically variations of the things I feel are key and powerful in the PvE Ele metagame right now – Hammer, Arcana, Water Attunement (though of course in organized groups they ditch the latter two for pure Hammer DPS). Going 25 in Air is actually really nice for PUGs because besides stacking Vuln, you also have higher crit chance, which can be valuable if you can’t rely on others to grant Fury. Overall, I’d say both are good!

There’s an Air Trait that gives CDR for glyphs.

Given that, I personally wouldn’t recommend sticking with glyphs once you reach max level. I can see the case for it when you’re leveling, however. Keeping Glyph of Elementals (the Elite and the Utility slot versions) sounds like a pretty OK idea for leveling, but I actually don’t think you really need to trait for them.

I also think that going full damage gear would really help. Contrary to what other people say, I think that full Berserkers is the best way to go once you reach Level 60 because it will allow you to burst things down before they can kill you. Generally your opening on enemies should be a Fire 3 or Fire 4 followed up with Earth 2 or Earth 4, and then autoattacking with Lightning Whip till stuff goes off cooldown (attuning to and dodge rolling in Water for heals). The Ele is very unlike other classes in that it relies on using several (+8) skills to make the most use out of it, rather than focusing on a toolbox of 3 or 4 skills that are very powerful.

I find Staff really difficult to solo-roam with. It seems very much a team oriented weapon to me. If I’m running around in Orr, I much prefer to go Dagger Dagger. In fact whenever I’m roaming over large distances anywhere, Dagger Dagger seems to be the way to go.

The guide in my sig is what you’re looking for. I have both Scepter and Dagger builds there that I find to be acceptable for dungeoning.

Your best autoattack is Lightning Whip.

Go full Berserker gear. No wonder you’re having problems.

The Elementalist is a very difficult class to play and to level. I have a guide that explains how to play it in my sig.

Go with 30 in Arcana, 20 in water, and take Arcana V VI XI and Water V VI.

Look at the guide in my sig. For Dagger Dagger, look at Zoose’s Guide. He has a really really great video guide that you should check out that explains the mentality of playing a D/D Ele.

Basically, the Ele has incredibly weak inherent stats because it has a lot of potential to do some really crazy strong stuff. It’s definitely not for everyone. If you hate playing the Ele and can’t keep up with its playstyle, then certainly, don’t play it. But if you really want to see how the class is supposed to work in PvE, look at my guide for some advice.

It works out great. Check out Zoose’s guide to the S/D Ele:
-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEBSaDhuGow
-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex7Bt8faeBQ

I also have a guide on the Ele in general for Dungeons in my sig.

Brewster.5473:

Thanks for the responses. The main thing I want now is a vial for the back. Don’t like the fractals all that much, seems I am never the right level but since it is currently the only way to ascended gear I guess I need to bite the bullet and get more of them done. Thanks again!

You can get it with Laurels, WvW Badges + Laurels, and Guild Missions. The only thing you need FOTM for is the backpiece.